These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year, and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at yec.co.

1. The Ability to Problem-Solve

The one trait I would say is the most important to entrepreneurs is the ability to creatively problem-solve. Sometimes, solutions to business problems aren’t obvious and you have to find an out-of-the-box solution. That can be a real challenge because most people are taught to color within the lines.

– Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure

2. Grit

You need courage, resolve and strength of character to withstand the ebbs, flows and failures that lead to successful business. The best way to get this is through experience. I’ve seen a lot of young entrepreneurs with more grit than their older counterparts, especially when they had customer service jobs and worked their way up the ladder to experience different seats in the company.

– Givelle Lamano, Oakland DUI Attorneys

3. Flexibility

One of the most essential traits an entrepreneur can possess is flexibility. You need to be able to change your approach in response to market conditions, customer feedback and what any partners or investors want at any given time. Being flexible also means looking at “failure” as a signal to make changes rather than as a permanent obstacle.

– Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting

4. Fearlessness

Aspiring entrepreneurs should be fearless. It’s fear that often prevents you from grabbing new opportunities, as new entrepreneurs are unable to decide what’s best for them or how a particular decision would affect them. Well, you won’t know unless you try. So, be quick with your decisions. Preparedness is great and all, but if you’re afraid to make a move, someone else will — and will likely succeed. 

– Chris Klosowski, Easy Digital Downloads

5. Sociability

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you need to focus on developing your social skills. When you have strong social skills, it becomes easier for you to build strong relationships with your customers, investors or anyone you think is important to your business. Good social skills make you a better communicator and help you make others feel secure so they connect with you on a deeper level.

– Andrew Munro, AffiliateWP

6. Determination

One trait you need to succeed as an entrepreneur is determination. You’ll encounter people who don’t like your idea. There will be times when clients or investors reject you. Your first project idea may never see the light of day. You need to have the drive to move past these unfortunate situations if you want to find success.

– Daman Jeet Singh, FunnelKit

7. Decisiveness

Decisiveness is the main trait any successful entrepreneur needs to cultivate. From making decisions about the budget or day-to-day communication, maintaining the ability to decide and decide quickly remains imperative. I use mental models like Occam’s razor to run my life. For example, when presented with two options, I choose the simplest and I get a lot of significant work done.

– Libby Rothschild, Dietitian Boss

8. A Realistic Mindset

Be realistic! An entrepreneur’s career is full of ups and downs, which are part of the learning process — and that’s a fact. Keeping your feet on the ground will save you much frustration when things don’t go the way you want. Instead, learn your lessons and keep moving. This will also help you to consider and prepare for multiple scenarios while adjusting along the way.

– Riccardo Conte, Virtus Flow

9. Moxie

In order to be an entrepreneur, you must have some moxie. Being outspoken, direct, resilient and having the ability to persevere is something that most entrepreneurs have in common. You have moxie if you can get up after failing. Aspiring entrepreneurs can cultivate it by focusing on confidence. Stand up for what you believe in and don’t let others’ opinions or perceptions get in your way.

– Jennifer A Barnes, Optima Office, Inc.

10. The Ability to Follow Long-Term Plans

The ability to follow and execute on a long-term plan — meaning multiple years — without being sidetracked by mirages along the way or discouraged by inevitable ups and downs is so important. This requires you to learn multiple skills, including attention to detail, deep work and strategic vision (as opposed to tunnel vision, which trips up many entrepreneurs). 

– Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

11. A Willingness to Keep Learning

If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you should have an open mind toward learning. It’s important for you to realize that learning is an ongoing process. It can help you develop new skills that in turn can help you stay ahead of your competitors at all times.

– Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

12. A Self-Reflective Mind

One trait that can help aspiring entrepreneurs succeed is self-reflection. Embracing your mistakes and learning from them is the only way an entrepreneur can grow and be better than ever before. However, one can’t cultivate this skill by enrolling in a particular program. You have to have an open mind, give yourself the freedom to make mistakes and foster the courage to learn from them.

– Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

13. Resilience

Resilience is one of the most important traits you can develop as an entrepreneur. The journey is going to have high highs and low lows, and it will be your ability to push through and persevere during this time that will be the difference between success and failure. To develop resilience, develop a positive mindset, build a strong support system, understand your purpose and look after yourself.

– Zane Stevens, Protea Financial

14. The Ability to Thrive on Ambiguity

The cornerstone of entrepreneurial success is in the ability to accept and thrive on ambiguity. I have found that navigating the unpredictable landscape of business ventures requires you to possess a flexible mindset that can accommodate constant change and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Always stay updated with the latest developments and treat every change as an opportunity to grow.

– Vikas Agrawal, Infobrandz

As an aspiring entrepreneur, you must grasp a few important skills. These capabilities will help you battle the challenges in your entrepreneurship journey.

Here are seven essential soft skills you should prioritize as your career unfolds:

1. Stress Relief

Work should happen in a healthy way in order to keep your creative juices flowing. But when you’re a new entrepreneur struggling with many challenges, innovative ideas and creativity can sometimes be the last things that come to you. Oftentimes, that happens because you are dealing with too much stress. You’ll burn out if you can’t relieve the stress that’s bothering you.

Consider joining a gym or signing up for yoga classes to alleviate stress buildup. You might also take a relaxing bubble bath or go for a long drive — anything needed to deal with your stress and anxiety. But remember, it needs to be done in a healthy way. You won’t find relief at the bottom of a bottle.

2. Curiosity

Entrepreneurs must constantly update themselves and their businesses using the power of innovation. Explore new technologies, ideas, and better practices. Curiosity encourages entrepreneurs to learn something new or acquire a new skill.

Ask questions like, how can I improve my business? What are others doing in the industry? How can I offer a better solution? When you start learning more, your industry knowledge naturally increases. You can also look for ideas related to other industries similar to yours. You might end up discovering something better to pursue.

3. Adaptability

You could explore many of the latest and most effective entrepreneurship strategies when curious. But what happens when updating yourself and your business? Change isn’t easy. That’s where adaptability comes in.

If you can’t adapt, you can’t change. An entrepreneur should commit to being open-minded, skilled, and flexible. These qualities will help you adapt to changes more quickly and easily.

4. Sales and Communication

You’re trying to sell a solution to a specific problem. Sales and communication skills are solid qualities you must have. These skills help you establish your business. You need to sell your solution not just to your customers but also to your teammates, investors, and business partners. Master the art of writing messages and speaking clearly to others. It’s necessary to convey your message to different people.

When selling your solution, there’s no need to be manipulative. Instead, be a problem-solver when you speak or write for your business. Pinpoint your potential customer. That’s how you craft powerful messages for your target audience. Establishing credibility is another powerful sales tool. There are plenty of online learning courses that can help you learn or bolster your sales and communication tactics.

5. Management

In a business, you have a lot of spinning plates to attend to. Many things might happen all at once, and an entrepreneur must manage them properly. Master skills like time management, milestone defining, priority planning, and task execution to shore up your management potential.

Financial management is also critically important. You must understand key parameters like ROI to understand how you can reduce costs and increase revenue. Most importantly, a good manager needs to be able to make the right decisions.

6. Patience

Entrepreneurs face many unique challenges on any given day. Only patience can help you push through them. You must manage marketing, supply chain, customer services, and so much more. You’ll want a clear, level head when handling the levers of the business.

You’ll also face plenty of threats in the form of burnout, rejection, stress, and so on. There’ll be times when you feel you can’t keep it up anymore. But with patience and resilience, it’s possible to overcome all obstacles. Nothing is perfect. Understand that and adapt your processes accordingly. And remember: The bad times won’t last forever.

7. Learning From Mistakes

Entrepreneurs must be hungry to always learn more. You’ll make mistakes and fail in many things along the way, sure, but you must show a learner’s attitude when you do. Being self-aware of your mistakes is the key. Try not to repeat them.

So there you are. Mastering these seven skills will help you in the long run, no matter the type of your business. Just make sure to take care of your physical and mental health along the way.

I’ve heard some cynical comments about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship; one comment says that entrepreneurs are, well, becoming one because they simply can’t get a real job. Another one says that entrepreneurs are a group of people who use their parents and/or everyone else’s money to start a business and have fun with it without thinking of returning any of it.

Some say that entrepreneurship is easy – just get a product people want and sell it for a profit. Right. Some say that entrepreneurship is overrated – you won’t make more than a decent paid job. Right.

It’s sad, really… those naysayer just don’t realise that entrepreneurs and small business are two of the most prominent factors that make the economy moving. Just ask the mentors and experts about what a community could do if small business is not supported by the Government: Crippled. Then the butterfly effect kicks in, and eventually the whole economy of a nation is brought down just because investors, entrepreneurs and business owners are not well-supported.

Yet successful entrepreneurs thrive despite all the unfavourable policies, the naysayer’s boos and jeers, and the non-supportive friends and family, who laugh at their ideas of starting a business out of their garage.

If you are considering entrepreneurship, are you ready for such pressure? You will somehow face people who question your decision jumping into the entrepreneurship bandwagon. The worse part is, those who doubt you often your closest ones – your spouse, your parents, your friends…

Are you ready?

Startups are not for the faint-hearted

We can’t deny the fact that many startups are bound to fail. Well, did you know why many startups fail? There are thousands of reasons, but one of the reasons that I think as the main cause of startup failures is false hopes.

If you are thinking of running a business as traveling all over the world at will, riding a limo sipping champagne, or doing whatever you like in your pajamas or swimming suit – I apologise, but I need to pop your balloon.

Stop dreaming. Start looking into the reality. Entrepreneurship is not easy and if you don’t have what it takes to get a business launched and navigate your vessel through the storm, you’d better get a job.

Entrepreneurship requires to be able to juggle and decide on many things: Balancing your work-life; deciding from many strategic options; choosing between a list of suppliers; and so on. Initially, you need to be able to wear many “hats” – bookkeeping/administrative, marketing, development, production, procurement, and so on.

You need to be open-minded and be prepared for open-ended outcome of your decisions; you need to be ready for any circumstances requiring you to re-focus and re-strategise in the middle of your plan.

And those perks you are having while working for a boss, you don’t have them when you are an entrepreneur: Paid leave, managed retirement planning, and so on. You are literally on your own, supporting yourself with your own resources.

Whether you are a solopreneur or the owner of multi-business ventures employing thousands of staffs while running yours while having fun doing so (like what Sir Branson is doing,) “hard work,” “perseverance” and “delayed gratification” are three of the main “keywords” defining all what entrepreneurs are doing.

Indeed, entrepreneurs are hard worker and passionate about their business. What keep them going is their passion for what they do and their love for everything entrepreneurship, starting up and business ownership.

If startup is so difficult, why people are doing it?

Yes, this question is asked by many who are interested in entrepreneurship. This question might be your question.

It’s a fair question: With all the hurdles you need to take on if you are plunging yourself into entrepreneurship, why bother starting up?

There are many answers, but if you asked me, my answer would be this: I love this game.

I love the search of business ideas. I love the many sleepless nights working on my business to see it grows steadily. I love the possibility for me to create something useful for the community – while giving me the lifestyle and financial independent I want for my family. I love the ups and downs of running a business – sure, failing sucks, but I can learn a great deal from it personally and professionally.

I wouldn’t trade what I am doing right now (work at home, surrounded by the people I love) with any high-paying jobs requiring me to work 12 hours a day or more; I love the freedom money can’t buy. I love a business that is built around my lifestyle, not the other way around.

Of course, I don’t love ALL aspects of my business: I don’t fancy the back office operations – bookkeeping, administrative and so on – but you can always hire someone competent to do those for you

Takeaway

Indeed, entrepreneurship is one of the most risky careers of all. Well, if you want safety and security, just get a job. But if you love the unknowns and embrace risks, entrepreneurship is a path worth walking; it’s rewarding in every sense – financially and emotionally.

So, now you know some facts about entrepreneurship. I do hope you can start a business with the right mindset; I also hope you start your journey with humility; being passionate without arrogance; taking calculated risks, not gambling; eagerness to help others when you have finally reached the top; acknowledging the fact that without God and those people around you – friends, family, fellow entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, etc. – you won’t go far.

Dream big. Start small. Just do it, seriously!

1. Vision

You need to have a vision that you’re excited about. Starting and growing a company requires a lot of effort. Usually, you’ll need to work consistently for at least 5-years before you achieve a moderate level of success in terms of sales and profitability.

Without a vision that excites you, you’ll likely give up too soon. So before you start a company, give a lot of thought to your vision. It should excite you and you should be ready to work for many years in the pursuit of making that vision a reality.

Vision is also important as the company grows and you hire employees. It will unify your employees’ efforts and provide direction. Employees will be more motivated and excited if they share in your company’s vision and understand what the company is trying to achieve now and in the future.

When I started CRAVEBOX 7-years ago, I had a strong vision that I would sell products online and make $200k/yr. I thought it’d take me about 5-years to achieve this. This vision excited me so much because I couldn’t tolerate working for other people.

I dreamed all day about having the freedom and flexibility to work on what I chose, from any location, and to build my own schedule. I figured $200k/yr is an income that would allow me to run my business forever. I wanted my business to be self-sustaining so I could work in freedom without ever having to go get another job. I’ve greatly surpassed that original vision in terms of both flexibility and profitability and the vision gave me the energy I needed to make it happen. Vision is so important.

This is a great article on the importance of vision: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/269757

2. Hard Work

Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires a ridiculous amount of work. There will most likely be lots of competition in your market and to beat those incumbents, you’ll need to work really hard.

In the beginning, you’ll need to take on most roles yourself. You’ll need to learn new skills to be competent in those many different roles. For example, you’ll likely need to design and create your product, build your website, perform marketing, bookkeeping, accounting, accounts payable and receivable, etc. You might have a partner, a freelancer, or an employee early on to help but you’ll still need to understand all these aspects of the business to manage anyone helping you.

Once the business begins to grow, the amount of work to operate the business will become overwhelming. So, you’ll need to hire employees, delegate work to them effectively, and manage them. This will free up your time to continue growing the business but it doesn’t mean you can relax. You’ll still have to manage your staff while continuing to grow the business, deal with problems, emergencies, adapt to new and improving competition, etc.

3. Resilience

This is last on my list but it might be the most important characteristic for entrepreneurship. To succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to be the type of person who can get rejected repeatedly, every day for months or maybe years, and continue to come back stronger.

I’ve learned that for myself, rejection gives me more energy. Every time I’m rejected or results are disappointing, I become frustrated or even angry, which causes me to push harder until I get the results I desire. So for me, rejection and failure only makes me stronger. This is so important because the first few years of business will consist of mostly rejection, failure, and generally disappointing results.

You need to be able to hang in there, work through this, and eventually you will break through to success. Even after you’re successful, things will go wrong every day, problems will happen, and you’ll need resilience throughout the entire lifespan of the business.

This study shows that resilience predicts entrepreneurial success:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167487014000063